I always wondered why the stock market wasn’t open for 24 hours. It’s not like humans are really needed for the stock transactions to take place. By having an opening and closing time, it creates these artificial points in time where stocks fluctuate more. Also, many brokerage services already have after-market trading within its own brokerage. The stock exchange I’m speaking of is the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange). I believe that the NASDAQ already is opened 24hrs if I’m not mistaken. I understand complicated transactions may require human intervention, just like most things that computers can’t take care of, there’s always customer support. Take a retail store for example. Before, real humans were needed to help customers out at real store locations, but how many customers really needed customer support? I mean nowadays, even the checkout process has no humans. I went to Fred Meyers the other day to purchase some necessities and all I had to do was swipe the items myself, slide my credit card, and walk out the door. A better example would be online retail stores. No human being needed once again, unless the servers go down or you have a complicated transaction, which then you’ll have to wait to humans come in and are available to help you.
I spoke to lilsneezy the other day about this and she’s working for a trading firm. One of the reasons she gave me that the stock exchange isn’t opened 24hrs a day is because in the event where a stock is plummeting, by having the stock exchange closed, it gives the company time to release some press or try to stablize its stock before the exchange opens the next day. I guess that is a valid reason, but I’d still like to see it go 24hrs/day. They can always issue a temporary lock on the stock like what Enron did and not let any trading go on, which I think would be the better solution than using the closing and opening times. If anyone has a better reason on why stock exchanges shouldn’t be open for 24hrs/day, I’d lke to know why.
Random Crap:
Bank apologizes for grooming guide – One of Australia’s largest banks apologized on Monday for a “grooming handbook” that suggested staff wear flesh-colored underwear and advised against shiny stockings because they make legs look fatter. They actually sell flesh-colored underwear? As Tera noted: flesh colored underwear sure is risque, cause ppl would mistake you were not wearing any. i think they shoulda said wear plain underwear and no lingerie/lacy shit.
S. Dakota’s tallest building resists demolition – “It is kind of a bust. It didn’t get knocked down,” said Regan Smith, Sioux Falls risk emergency manager. “It took the first floor out and it is leaning at about a 30-degree angle.” I think they should just rename it to the Leaning Tower of South Dakota and make it a tourist attraction.
Sony creates new public relations disaster – In a relatively minor gaffe, but one that is nonetheless illustrative of a disconnect between Sony leadership and the Real World™, Sony has been caught in an embarrassing marketing campaign. The company has hired vandals, or artists, depending upon you point of view, to paint images of PSP players on the sides of buildings. This has resulted in a counter-defacing backlash in cities including Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, and San Francisco. The thing is, it’s not really graffiti and defacing property, at least according to Sony spokesperson Molly Smith.
Car paints changing with temperature (from /.) – It’s now common to build materials which can change colors depending on their surrounding environment because of progresses made in colloid chemistry. But now, German researchers have gone a step further. They’ve used ion bombardment and gold metallisation to produce new particles whose bonding behavior can be chemically tailored. This could lead to new shimmering car finishes which can change with temperature or humidity, new cosmetics, but more importantly, to new applications in optical data processing.
Science Groove (from /.) – lectures given in song format. Pretty interesting and funny, plus it’s free!